V-stitch for Victory

The first winter the boyfriend and I were going out, he told me it was cold in his house.  So I thought I should start making my beloved a blanket so it would be done in time for his autumn birthday.  And then maybe Christmas.  Okay, I'm still technically working on it in that it's in a bag and it's really close to being finished.

In preparation for this Christmas (and because I already had a big ass hook), I started work on 5 1/2 hour throw.  Lion Brand has several variations of this pattern--basically, choose super bulky yarn and get V-stitching.  My choice was based on color preferences--the boyfriend likes orange, and Nicole Stitch Studio Heartfelt Heritage had an orange I thought would be good.

This is not actually a 5 1/2 hour throw, even accounting for the fact that I had to work and rest from grappling with a massive plastic hook.  Unless everybody's way better at maneuvering gargantuan crochet hooks than I am, there's no way this is even 6 hours of work even if that's all you did that day.  It's an improvement over the previous Infinity Hours Afghan, and it is a quick project, but you're not going to finish it while binge-watching Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt.

 The final product was 7 skeins of Russet, so about 574 yards of yarn.  The original pattern has a simple edging up the sides and fringe on the ends.  Since the boyfriend and I are both cat owners, I decided against extra yarn hanging off the ends.  I've also never done anything like that, so I have no idea how easy it would be for a bored cat to pull it loose and eat it.  Since the week after your cat eats yarn is fairly unpleasant, I decided to go with a single crochet border all the way around.

This was also a way to incorporate the boyfriend's second signature color, blue.  Despite not going to UVA (other than that one time when we visited Charlottesville), the boyfriend likes orange and blue together, and he was happy with the dark orange and dark blue.

Unfortunately it was 75 degrees on Christmas, so that cut into the blanket enthusiasm.

Easy DIY Emoji Ornament

What you need:

• Cardstock 
• Premade round ornament (I found mine at A.C. Moore)
• Sharpie
• Mod Podge (for some emoji)

I went with the laughing crying emoji because 1) I do whatever the Oxford English Dictionary tells me is cool and 2) it's my friend Professor of the English Class's signature emoji.

For the circle, I used the insert that came with the ornament as a guide.  Smarter, patient people might want to try tracing it, then cutting, but I had things to do.

Since I only needed a little bit of white for the teeth, I drew most of the face with Sharpie and used a white out pen for the teeth. In case the ornament spins, I drew the face on both sides. The tears won't fit inside the ornament, so they're attached to the front of the ornament using Mod Podge.  

An even easier option for those with holiday shit to do: print out an emoji on photo paper and stick it in a frame.  Hand assembled still counts as handmade!